


If Night Falls In Your Heart (I'd Light The Fire)

by rosesmallow



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Compliant - Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Found Family, Gen, Light Angst, Mentor/Protégé, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene, Poe is Very Protective of Leia and Leia's Very Protective of Poe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 15:47:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29048652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosesmallow/pseuds/rosesmallow
Summary: Leia's gotten use to people leaving her, but time and time again, Poe Dameron comes back for her.(Set just before the Battle of Starkiller, Poe checks in on Leia to see how she's doing.)
Relationships: Poe Dameron & Leia Organa
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	If Night Falls In Your Heart (I'd Light The Fire)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [braigwen_s](https://archiveofourown.org/users/braigwen_s/gifts).



> braigwen and i need to be banned from the sequel trilogy because we had so many poe and leia feels just from the like. ten minutes they're in tfa. so naturally, i wrote a fic. (poe's annoyance with han was braig's idea!)

“General!”

Leia slowed her stride, exhaling shakily. She should have known she wouldn’t have gotten very far before duty called, but as she turned around to find Poe approaching her, there was a softness in his dark eyes that made her question this had to do with the Resistance or the impending assault on Starkiller.

“Aren’t you supposed to be jumping into an X-Wing to blow something up?” Leia asked wryly when he stopped in front of her, his hands on his hips. The hint of a smile curved his lips upwards at her use of their long-running inside joke, but Poe shook his head, shaking loose a few strands of dark curls over his bruised forehead.

“BB-8’s getting her fired up right now.” Poe answered, then took a step forward to let an officer past. Leia gave them a quick nod before refocusing her attention on Poe: he was studying her carefully, and when he spoke again, his voice was low so that no one but her could hear him over the commotion of the base, “Are you okay?”

The question struck her and she almost snapped at him. Of  _ course _ she wasn’t okay, the Hosnian System was gone, taking with it many of her friends and what little support from the Senate the Resistance did have; she was fighting a war with her long-lost son on the opposing side, she’d sent Poe on a suicide mission and nearly lost him for a map which wasn’t even  _ complete  _ on a fool’s errand thinking she could find Luke and bring him home; and now, D’Qar - her home of five years now -was under threat of total annihilation. 

“No,” Leia answered instead, fighting to keep her voice gentle. “I’m not but neither are you.”

Poe’s expression shifted and he looked down, the shadows putting his cuts and bruises into stark relief. Leia reached out a tender hand and swept her thumb along his cheekbone. Poe took in a shuddering breath, and Leia felt a surge of raw hatred lance through her: at the people who’d taken him and beaten and tortured him. She had images of faceless stormtroopers beating him, of an all-too-familiar interrogation droid…

He hadn’t gone into details about what happened when he was captured about the Finalizer, and Leia had a sneaking suspicion that he was keeping something from her, but she didn’t want to press him.

Poe cleared his throat, “I meant with Han being back.”

She blinked, took in his sincere expression of concern, the shade of anger behind his eyes (not at her, she realized, but rather at  _ Han _ ), and understood all at once. Leia gave him a small smile and patted him lightly on the cheek. “I can handle myself, Poe.”

“Of course, I know you can. I just - you don’t have to. You have me.” He meant for it to come out lightly, but he doesn’t stick the landing. It comes out too damn sincere, sounds too close to a promise he isn’t sure he can keep when he’s about to jump into Black One accompanied only by eleven other fighters to take on a  _ planet _ .

Warmth blooms through Leia’s chest: oh, she knows she has Dameron. His commitment has been the one thing she’s never questioned. Time and time again, he’s returned to her - the only person who hasn’t abandoned her, the sole person on this base who knows of her connection to the Force, of her son’s identity; he’s been the one to hold her when she can’t stop the tears from falling. 

“I’ve never doubted it, but I can handle dealing with my estranged husband.” 

Poe doesn’t look convinced as he shifts his stance, folding his arms over his chest. It makes Leia think about the meeting over Snap’s recon data, how Poe’d shot Han a few barely concealed glares in between words (of which Han had been oblivious to), the way Poe quickly gave the dismissal when Leia started to get overwhelmed with concern about whatever manic scheme Han had brewing to get to Starkiller to disable the shields.

“I just don’t like seeing you upset,” Poe admitted softly. 

“I don’t like seeing you hurt,” Leia countered with a quirk of the eyebrow. “There’s some things we can’t avoid, no matter how much we want to.”

Poe considered this for a moment. Privately, he thought he’d do anything to make sure he could avoid seeing her upset: he’d move heaven and hell and whatever was in between to make sure Leia Organa didn’t suffer anything else.

Before he could respond, Leia patted him on the shoulder. “Come on, Commander. We’ve got one hell of a day’s work ahead of us, we better get a move on before your team takes off without you.”

Poe grinned as he fell into step by Leia’s right side, his heart thrumming in his chest the nearer they got to the landing strip. It was all riding on them: if they failed, D’Qar would be destroyed. If he failed, the General would go with it.

As they stepped outside, Poe leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to Leia’s cheek. “For luck,” he told her, and then he was jogging towards Black One, shouting excitedly at BB-8 to see how far the droid had gotten in prepping it for flight.

Leia watched him go, something seizing in her chest that felt like a mingling of pride and fear. Poe would never willingly leave her, she knew, but that didn’t mean he would always come back to her.

She prayed he would though - to the Force, to every deity in the galaxy she knew of:  _ don’t take this one from me, too. _


End file.
